Risky Behavior

Just routine. The usual. Same old same old. The humdrum pattern of existence. Get up at the same time every day. Same breakfast. Take the same route to the same job. Deal with the same tasks with the same people. Leave work at the same time. Same dinner. Watch the same TV shows. Go to bed at the same hour. Maybe even have the same dreams every night!
Some people count on such regular patterns. Not that they are dull or uncreative people, unable to even peak over the rim of their rut; rather they find a kind of security in such routine. They may have grown up in just such a structured and predictable a world, neither being able to afford nor to risk a step off the beaten track. Or they came from a chaotic and scary family where everyone walked lightly out of dread of what might happen, neither able to speak openly nor able to act honestly for fear of the consequences.
Yes, there are those whose regular days are anything but regular. Not that they seek out the unstructured life, nor that they have such poor boundaries that they shift, weathervane-like, with every gust of anyone else's  tornado. Nor are we talking about those who only find a life worthwhile if it is lived on the edge. Rather, it is those who persist in wringing from life every bit possible.
Someone once wrote in an obituary: "He was born a man and died a grocer." There are many people who let the opportunities pass. "Risk" is not a word in their vocabulary; nor can they see the possibility of variation in their routine. Such openness need not be either reckless nor random. But too many people have confused familiarity with felicity, thinking fulfillment springs from nothing more than doing the same thing over and over and over.
If a person would change, and even knows what change to make, yet holds back not out of realistic consideration but out of anxiety for facing the unfamiliar, the moment might come when that train has left, that time has passed and the only thing left is regret. As the saying goes, there are many who end up living lives of quiet desperation. Too many climb to the top-most diving board, go out to the end of the board, gaze down...and then climb back down without jumping..